Reports about Tupolev-144 inaugral flights by foreign journalists and other
passengers who were aboard the flight reflected severe noise inside the cabin
during the whole flight as the chief problem for the passengers comfort. While
part of the noise was coming from the engines, chief source of the noise was a
poor design for air-coniditioning and aircraft skin cooling system. Few excerpts
from the contemporary reports that relate the problem:

"Soviet supersonic jet goes into service"
The Times (London), November 2, 1977

The estimated 80 passengers, most of them journalists and civilian
aviation officials including the aircraft designer Mr. Tupolev, had to shout
to make themselves heard in the cabin... Mr Tupolev acknowledged the noise
problem inside the airliner... He acknowledged that the cabin noise was some
five decibels louder than his most recent product, the TU154 trijet airliner
[*] and said: "We are looking into the problem"... It was caused by the
supersonic airliner's four huge jet engines... as well as by an air
ventilation system... It was noisy every inch of the way, even wihen the
airliner was theoretically outrunning its own sound. The cloackroom and the
rest room section at the very rear were almost unbearably noisy.

[*] Original Tu-154 was a substantially noisier design than later Tu-154M,
albeit quieter than a propeller-driven IL-18 and An-10.

The only inflight problem was noise. Conversation was rendered almost
impossible by a loud rushing sound that made the flight seem as though it were
taking place in a wind tunnel. Alexei Tupolev, the plane's designer, who was
aboard the inaugural run, explained that the noise came from a supercharged
ventilation system designed to keep passengers cool despite the above-boiling
temperatures on the plane's skin.

"I was sitting by the window and couldn't talk to the person sitting two
seats away on the isle", one correspondent said. "I had to communicate with
him by notes". The plane's chief designer, Alexei Tupolev... was aboard and
acknowledged the noise problem... Tupolev said the high noise level was caused
by the plane's powerful engines and by an air ventilation system needed to
cool the cabin.

"Soviet SST Takes Off in Moscow -- And You Almost Hear it in Queens"
New York Times 2.11.1977

"The flight was perfectly smooth", said Daniel Vernet, a correspondent
of Le Monde of Paris, who was one of those the Foreign Ministry allowed to
ride on the inaugural flight. "But during the flight the cabin is noisy. One
can have a conversation only with difficulty"... "We are working on the noise
problem", Mr. Tupolev said.

After the inaugural flights, two susbsequent flights (for the next two weeks)
were cancelled outright, despite being booked, and the third flight was rescheduled for
several days later.

"Soviets Cancel SST Again"
The Washington Post, Nov 23, 1977

For the third straight week, the Soviet airline Aeroflot canceled the
scheduled flight of its new TU-144 supersonic passenger airliner today.

The article further relates that the official reason given by Aeroflot for
flight cancellation was bad weather in Alma-Ata, however journalist's phone
call to Alma-Ata Aeroflot office revealed that the weather there was all clear
there and one airplane had already arrived fine earlier in the day.